First, some statistics about train derailments. According to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), in 2022 there will be 1,168 train derailments in the United States. This is about the average for the last ten years. In the same year, the FRA tracked 5,933 of his vehicles carrying hazmat (hazmat) and 10 hazmat releases nationwide.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) — a railroad through Flagstaff — reports that “more than 99.9% of rail dangerous goods shipments arrive at their destination without being discharged due to a train crash.” “Tens of billions of dollars of private investment in upgrading railroad tracks and equipment, and in developing and implementing new safety-enhancing technologies, has helped reduce the rate of dangerous goods accidents on railroads by 55% since 2012.” It is reported that

That’s not to say that derailments don’t happen. Flagstaff has had two derailments in recent years. One happened in 2018 and the other in 2019.

Still, compared to other modes of transportation, such as trucking across interstate highways, “Rail is the safest mode of transportation. [hazardous] Flagstaff Fire Department (FFD) Public Affairs Officer Josh Crane said:

That said, if a hazardous materials train derailment occurs in or around Flagstaff, FFD will be one of the first responders.

“The City of Flagstaff has 18 certified hazardous materials engineers who are trained and schooled on how to deal with these issues,” reports Crane.

Responders in these cities will be joined by BNSF emergency response teams stationed along the railroad and available 24/7.

“They have a team that can respond within two to three hours, sometimes less,” says Crane.

Crane explained that one of the first tasks on-site was to identify what types of hazards were present at the derailment site. To that end, the city’s team is equipped with an app that can identify each vehicle and its cargo. As a backup, the BNSF team (and its manifesto) will be in touch soon.

The FFD Dangerous Goods team has texts and apps that identify the properties of the chemical in question.

“There’s an app that tells you basically everything about a chemical or a product, what a chemical is, what its boiling point is, and how we as a fire department and a hazardous materials engineer would deal with that situation.” It tells you how,” said Crane. He said.

The nature of the hazard involved determines the response, Crane explained, sometimes putting first responders in the position of choosing the lesser of two harms.

That was likely the case in the East Palestine incident, said FFD captain Keith Kashat. causes polymerization and increases the pressure inside the tanker.

“I can only imagine. There are 11 tanks and the pressure is rising because the heat that was on them destroyed the inhibitor,” Kashat said. “Now he has 11 pressure bombs.”

A detonation from a pressurized chemical tanker is a serious risk, Kashat said, and can send blasts and shrapnel over long distances. There are multiple types of pressure explosions, one of which is known as BLEVE (short for “Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion”).

Northern Arizona experienced BLEVE on rails. In 1973, a leaking propane tanker at Kingman was ignited by static electricity, resulting in a BLEVE fireball 1,000 feet in diameter. The shockwave was heard and felt over a five-mile radius, killing 16 firefighters.

Kashat said of the 1973 Kingman explosion, “There were people a mile away who had flash burns from nothing but concussions.

As for pressurized rail tankers, Kashat said allowing them to explode could “risk leveling an entire community,” let alone 11. The choice made in East Palestine was to implement a “controlled release” of pressurized chemicals to mitigate harm against the threat of an explosion.

There are a number of factors that would be considered if Flagstaff first responders had to make a similar decision. This is where the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) — the first to be called into the incident — plays a bigger role.

ADEQ can model how a chemical plume reacts to relevant conditions such as wind, humidity, and terrain. This modeling tells us exactly how the “controlled release” of chemicals will take place and, where applicable, the necessary evacuation zones.

After initial emergency response, ADEQ also plays a major role in long-term recovery. Sam Beckett, chairman of Coconino County’s emergency response committee, said responses to hazardous materials incidents can be divided into two categories. Initial emergency response as described above, followed by long-term recovery efforts conducted by the Emergency Operations Support Center (EOSC).

EOSC is “where most of the larger items are coordinated,” Beckett said. “Coordination with ADEQ, Environmental Protection Agency, etc.”

As well as modeling the wind when a hazardous material is released into the air, EOSC also models possibilities such as potential groundwater contamination from waste water. This is a risk factor that Flagstaff is very well prepared to track.

“Our region has been fortunate or unfortunate with all the fires in that it has received funding to map all the floodplains,” Beckett said. You can access that data fairly easily.”

Beckett explained that there is a close and well-trained network of communications between cities, counties, states and private agencies in both initial and long-term responses to hazardous materials incidents. Whether the incident is a hazardous material, an earthquake, or a terrorist attack, “we have constant regional planning exercises between various agencies and jurisdictions within Coconino County,” Beckett said.

“So if there’s an incident, I know who to call,” he added.

But who would call people in Flagstaff to inform them of something like a hazardous materials incident? There are multiple channels that citizens should expect to receive information from.

During the “lights and sirens phase” of the emergency, Flagstaff citizens should expect alerts from Coconino County’s Emergency Notification System, Beckett said.

“We always encourage people to visit the county’s website and sign up for the county’s emergency call system,” he added. “They have the ability to leverage IPAWS, which is an integrated public alert warning system, and that’s what Amber, who hasn’t signed up, gets when he receives an alert or any other alert. Most will be based off of polygon maps.

This means that you may not receive IPAWS alerts from your county unless someone is within a certain area. But if someone signed up for emergency notifications directly, they’re more likely to receive important information.

“This will keep us up to date on new incidents that are large enough to require public notification during the rapid response phase,” said Beckett.

When asked to assess Flagstaff and Coconino County’s emergency response capabilities, Beckett said, “The initial offensive phase is going to go well.”

“What we have here is going to be really good resource-wise,” he added. From there, we will begin working to secure the appropriate resources through county and state emergency operations centers.”

Beckett is confident that the northern Arizona emergency response community is well equipped to handle dangerous scenarios, even if the hazmat lingers. When he hosted a regional training with other regional partners, he realized, “One thing about him that everyone points out is that everyone has close ties within the region.” .

“It’s a very close-knit group of fire departments, police agencies, jurisdictions, municipalities, cities, various governmental agencies, private agencies, it’s a group within a region, and they work very closely with each other,” Beckett said. said, “You don’t always get it.”

“We work with various partners,” he added. “It’s just to make sure we’re ready in case something happens.”

To sign up for Coconino County Emergency Notification, please visit: coconino.az.gov/2612/Emergency-Notification-System.